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Pope's Call for Clemency Lifts Dissidents' Hopes

The dissident movement in Cuba is small, fragmented, isolated and constantly hounded. But by requesting clemency for imprisoned members of human rights and political groups, Pope John Paul II has given human rights advocates here and abroad hope that some respite, however brief and temporary, may soon be in the offing.

As of late today, Cuban state television and radio had not mentioned the Pope's appeal in their extensive coverage of his hourlong meeting with President Fidel Castro in Havana on Thursday. Neither the Vatican nor the Cuban Government has yet made public a list of the names of the political prisoners whose freedom has been asked for, and no official response has been announced.

But if Mr. Castro is in a mood to be magnanimous, he has plenty of candidates from whom to choose. As part of a campaign of repression that began two years ago, the Cuban state security apparatus has arrested dozens of organizers and members of independent human rights, labor, student and other professional groups on charges ranging from ''illegal association'' to revealing state secrets.

The case that has drawn the most attention in recent months is that of the Internal Dissidence Working Group. The four principal leaders of that group -- Vladimiro Roca, Marta Beatriz Roque, Felix Bonne and Rene Gomez Manzano -- were arrested in July on charges of counterrevolutionary activity after meeting with foreign reporters and calling for international observers to be allowed to monitor Cuba's one-party municipal elections, held this month.

Another case that human rights groups regard as important involves Hector Palacios Ruiz, leader of a group that calls itself Democratic Solidarity. Mr. Palacios was arrested early last year and charged with ''disrespect'' as the result of a television interview broadcast in Europe in which he said he doubted that Mr. Castro would comply with the so-called Vina del Mar Declaration.

In that document, signed by Mr. Castro and the presidents of all other Latin American countries during a summit meeting in Chile in 1996, the Cuban leader promised to respect democracy and civil and political rights. Not only was Mr. Palacios sentenced to 18 months in prison, but all his copies of the declaration, which he was distributing to other Cubans, were also confiscated.

Many of those taken into custody over the last two years belong to groups affiliated with Concilio Cubano, an umbrella organization founded in 1995 in an effort to bring greater unity and coherence to the dissident movement. The pace of the arrests increased after Concilio Cubano, which Cuban officials have charged is an ''alien body'' financed by the United States, applied for official permission to hold a public congress in February 1996.

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At a news conference in Havana on Tuesday, Michael E. Ranneberger, the head of the Department of State's office of Cuban affairs, estimated that there were now 600 political prisoners in Cuba. He described the dissident movement as ''still resilient'' despite the repression but added that more than 100 human rights advocates have been arrested or subjected to official harassment in the last six months.

Cuba has no single figure who symbolizes the struggle for democracy, like Andrei D. Sakharov in the Soviet Union or Wei Jingsheng in China. Instead, there are dozens of groups, many of which have no contact with one another. The fragmentation is testimony to what foreign human rights groups describe as the singular ferocity with which Mr. Castro has responded to efforts to organize opposition to Communist rule, now in its 40th year here.

''There is zero tolerance in Cuba for any space for independent political activity,'' Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive director of Human Rights Watch/Americas, said today. ''The security police try every imaginable tactic to discourage Cubans from political activity, from harassment, threats to family members and confiscation of documents on up to arrest and trial without a right to defense.''

In a telephone interview from Washington, Mr. Vivanco welcomed the Pope's request for clemency, calling it an ''extremely important'' gesture. ''Fidel Castro has become accustomed to responding, many times positively, to this sort of personal, respectful approach, negotiating names as a favor,'' he said. ''He doesn't want to look inflexible, and he usually grants releases.''

Until the Pope made his request, the Cuban Catholic Church had been regarded as sympathetic to human rights causes, but much less visible or aggressive than its counterparts in Brazil or Chile when those countries were ruled by right-wing military dictatorships. Cuba's Roman Catholic Primate, Jaime Cardinal Ortega, has worked quietly to expand the church's role.

Viewing the Pope's visit as a rare opportunity to present their case to the world, Oswaldo Paya Sardina, leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, and other dissident figures had expressed hope that the Pope would find time to meet with them. But at a news conference in Havana on Monday, Cardinal Ortega said he had ''no such letter in hand from Oswaldo Paya asking for an interview with His Holiness.''

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A version of this article appears in print on January 24, 1998, on Page A00005 of the National edition with the headline: Pope's Call for Clemency Lifts Dissidents' Hopes. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe